[India] Rainbow for allOverriding Section 377 and social sitgma, Gay Pride March has become an annual ritual in the Capital. Last year, however, when the first-ever parade was held in Delhi, it was not inclusive of all sections — the transgender felt left out. The complaint is not unique to Delhi. For a long time, gay pride marches across the world are said to have ignored the transgender, who claim they have been sidelined and are the pariahs within the LGBT community.

[India] Show of solidarity for rights of sexual minorities in ChennaiExcerpt: Many expressed hope that societal sensitivity would bring some succour to their daily lives. “We want a proper place to stay and employment opportunities. It can happen only if society gives us sanction,” said Shankari, talking about the issues of the transgender community.(Photo : M. Vedhan - Participants at the first Chennai Rainbow Pride March held in Chennai on Sunday.)

[America Latina]Festejan países latinos Día del Orgullo LGBTMientras gays peruanos denunciaron que su gobierno es el más homofóbico de Latinoamérica, en Chile el Orgullo Gay aplacó el frío invernal. Por su parte, El Salvador y Bolivia reprobaron los actos y crímenes de odio contra personas LGBT.[Colombia] Thousands in Colombia march for gay rightsPlastic surgeons must have been working overtime in the lead up to the annual Gay Pride March held Sunday around the country. Fake boobs and butts were on display as thousands of Colombia's gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals took to the streets to celebrate their sexual preferences and defend their rights. (Photo)

[USA] [Commentary] Hate Crimes Bill Would Federalize Criminal Law, Revive Double JeopardyAmong its many defects, the proposed federal hate crimes bill virtually ensures that some defendants will face double jeopardy, whatever the outcome of their cases. It all depends on the whims of the folks occupying the Attorney General’s office, who may want to score political points at a defendant’s expense.The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909) now before the Senate, establishes “thought crime,” violates equal protection by making some victims more important than others, elevates “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to be equivalent to civil rights categories like race, and greatly expands the federal role in criminal law.

segunda-feira, junho 29, 2009

The number of people having sex-change operations on the NHS each year has almost trebled since the procedure became a ‘right’.More than 1,000 people have had the surgery in a decade, costing the taxpayer up to £10million.Eighty per cent of the operations are to change a man into a woman.In addition to surgery, transsexuals can also get psychotherapy and hormone replacement therapy on the NHS.

People belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups took out a rally here on Saturday, demanding their right to life and dignity.Christened ‘Rainbow Pride Walk,’ the rally was attended by those from sexual minority groups.“Those with alternative sexualities and gender identities are expressions of diversity of humanity. We are not suffering from physical or mental illness. Our sexualities and gender are not the result of western culture or media influence; nor are they indicators of cultural degradation,” Subham Mishra, a leading gay activist, said.

(Photo: Lingaraj Panda — Members of the sexual minority group taking out a rally in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.)

India is set to review its long-standing laws barring gay sex, in a move that could decriminalise homosexuality in the largely conservative country, a report says.

Consensual sex between same-sex adults is punishable by a fine and a 10-year prison term under the Indian Penal Code, and most politicians have resisted amending the statute which dates back to British rule.

Tens of thousands of lesbian, transsexual and transgendered participants danced on downtown streets today to celebrate the annual Dyke March, part of Pride weekend that wraps up with a massive parade tomorrow.

Several thousand people gathered in Dolores Park to demand equality for the Trans Community. This was followed by a spirited march to 26th and Valencia. The march was the 5th trans march in San Francisco that began in 2004 to honor Gwen Araujo, a young transgendered woman who was brutally murdered in Newark California in November of 2002. (Photo on top and bottom)

[India] Bangalore makes a queer pitchThis year, Bangalore has given Pride celebrations a distinct local flavour with a week-long celebration titled the Karnataka Queer Habba. It began with a bang with an innovative cricket match. Titled “Queering the Pitch”, the match saw teams from different LGBT organisations pitted against each other. A live and humorous commentary interspersed with messages about LGBT rights and safe sex practices, ensured that no one was bored even for a minute. The Sangama team emerged the undisputed winner and was handed a trophy designed with queer symbols.[Jamaica] Parliament discusses sexual offences billExcerpt: Another parliamentarian is urging her colleagues to block every loophole to prevent a man who undergoes a sex change from seeking coverage under the definition of sexual intercourse in the proposed law. Government Senator Hyacinth Bennett cautioned that care should be taken to state that the sexual organs of the vagina and the penis be stated as the natural sex organs as defined at birth.

[USA] [Commentary] Déjà vu all over againThe “hairpin drop heard round the world” — that is how New York’s Mattachine Society, and others, 40 years ago described the June 28, 1969, events at Stonewall, a gay and queen bar in the heart of Greenwich Village.The name “Stonewall” has come to symbolize the beginning of gay activism and, in fact, spawned the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In actuality, however, Stonewall was not the first encounter between persons we now describe as gender diverse and the authorities/status quo. Dewey’s Lunch Counter in Philadelphia and Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco both saw incidents wherein drag queens — or transvestites, as they were often termed in the vernacular of the ’60s — were at odds with management and the local police.

[Sweden] Swedish parents keep 2-year-old's gender secretA couple of Swedish parents have stirred up debate in the country by refusing to reveal whether their two-and-a-half-year-old child is a boy or a girl.[Turkey]Turkey's sex workers seek to establish a unionActivists and sex workers in Turkey are working on a project to establish Turkey’s first sex workers union. They are hopeful about finding a solution to their problems and changing society’s approach toward sex workers. They will organize an awareness walk to bring attention to their issues

Sin ningún estudio clínico previo, personal del nosocomio determinó que el paciente moriría sin remedio. Sus familiares aseguran que el maltrato de médicos y enfermeras no sólo es a personas que viven con VIH, sino también a otros.[USA] Since StonewallFour decades after the riots, much has changed for LGBT Americans -- although much work remains[USA] [Blog/Commentary]What Would Today Look Like if the Stonewall Riots Didn’t Happen?I have this wonderful part of my being that I like to pull out and play with every so often. Okay. I suppose that sentence could have been written differently. I am referring to my “imagination.” My imagination has play tricks on me quite often, but then I get many chances to tame it with the wave of my typing fingers. This happens to be one of those times.

[GA, USA] Atlanta celebrates Stonewall WeekExcerpt: The largest slate of new Stonewall Week events comes from Human Rights Atlanta, which offers several activities meant to honor the gender non-conforming people who fought back at Stonewall and build support for transgender rights today. Although she was born just one year before the Stonewall Riots broke out, transgender activist Tracee McDaniel said she is inspired to know transgender and other gender non-conforming people were at the forefront of the modern day LGBT civil rights movement.

[USA] Local activists among 40 ’transgender heroes’ honored at Stonewall barHistorians have long credited poor and working class drag queens, bull dykes and other transgender and gender-non-conforming people as key participants in the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, but within the wider LGBT community that defining moment is all-too-often remembered as a gay, rather than LGBT, milestone. The International Court System and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force hope to change that. On June 25, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the riots that marked the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement, the two organizations will hold a dedication ceremony at the fabled New York City bar to unveil a plaque featuring the names of 40 transgender heroes past and present.(Photo: Stonewall’s legacy: (from left) Gunner Scott, Nancy Nangeroni and Grace Sterling Stowell will be immortalized as ’Transgender Heroes’ at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. (Source:Marilyn Humphries) ) [USA] Trans Federal Workers ProtectedPresident Obama's lawyers are drafting guidelines that would bar discrimination against federal employees based on gender identity, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The guidelines will protect federal transgender employees from discrimination, and are the first of their kind on a federal level.[Blog/Commentary] New Protections for Transgender Federal Workers[Blog/Commentary] N.Y. Times Reports On Transgender Rights: There Are No 'Liberals' On The Issue, Only 'Conservatives'[TN, USA] [Commentary] This victim lucky to be aliveWe need stricter laws protecting us when one of us is a victim of hate crime.Hate crimes are on the rise now, and those who commit them should be punished to the fullest extent that the law allows. When a hate crime is committed in our state, local law enforcement should be educated well enough to know how to serve and protect all of us![Commentary] Proposed Federal Law Would Be a Hate Crime Against America [PR]Task Force Action Fund urges for passage of critical hate crimes legislation[IL, USA] Alexandra Billings reigns on her paradeShe's a worldwide pioneer in the LGBT community, not just a local celebrity with roots in Chicago's northwest suburbs.Alexandra Scott Billings, 47, is the first transgender woman to have played a transgender character on television. She appeared in the 2003 made-for-TV movie Romy and Michelle: A New Beginning on ABC-TV and in an episode of the ABC show Karen Sisco. She also played transsexual characters in episodes of ER and Grey's Anatomy. (Photo)Pride Parade's grand premiere

[DC, USA] Baldwin bill seeks to end LGBT health disparitiesCongresswoman Tammy Baldwin introduced the Ending Health Disparities for LGBT Americans Act (ELHDA) on Tuesday, the first comprehensive approach to improving all areas of the health care system where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans face inequality and discrimination.“Our current health care system fails LGBT Americans on many levels,” said Baldwin in a statement.[DC, USA] Frank introduces inclusive ENDAThe LGBT community erupted in anger in the fall of 2007 when Representative Barney Frank introduced a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that excluded protection for gender identity. Critics also charged that the 2007 ENDA was "riddled with loopholes" that rendered it significantly weakened even for lesbians and gay men in the workplace. At the time, Frank said a bill including protections for transgender people simply didn't have the votes.Employment Non-Discrimination Act Introduced in U.S. HouseInclusive ENDA introduced

Two TransLondon organisers attended an open meeting hosted by Pride London’s representative for the trans community on Saturday 6th of June. At that meeting, it became clear that Pride London has been listening to the concerns expressed by members of TransLondon and other LGBT groups.

Forty years ago, on 27 June 1969, friends were having a quiet drink at the Stonewall Inn in Christopher Street New York. The Inn, reportedly owned by the Mafia, was more of a dump than a trendy public house. It operated without a liquor licence, its bar having no running water, with glasses being washed in dirty water. The Inn attracted an assortment of patrons: blacks, street queens, hustlers, effeminate men, butch dykes, homeless kids, transvestites and “scary drag queens”. Many were in their late teens (some underage). Those who were in their early thirties were considered “old”! At the Inn, drugs were freely available and the Inn was a good place to buy acid.

In 2003, Congress unanimously enacted the Prison Rape Elimination Act, showing a strong commitment to protecting incarcerated individuals from sexual abuse. The act established a National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, tasked with the duty of studying the causes and consequences of such abuse and providing solutions for prevention. Today, the Commission released its report, and it includes extensive discussion about the need to protect incarcerated members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

[USA] Gender dysphoria: from Christine Jorgensen to Chaz BonoIn 1995, Chastity Bono let the world know that she was a lesbian, a woman who is sexually attracted to other women. Recently, the news reported that the former Chastity Bono, who will now go by Chaz Bono in his new male persona, is taking steps toward physically transitioning from being female to becoming male. If done completely, female to male (FTM) transitioning consists of Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS), wherein surgical procedures divest one of all female physical components: a complete hysterectomy to remove the female reproductive system (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, and vagina) and use of tissues to create the genitalia of a male, and a bilateral mastectomy to remove breast tissue and mammary glands. These procedures are usually accompanied by the taking of male hormones – testosterone – to induce masculine traits such as the growth of facial hair and heavier body hair, deepening the voice, and increasing muscle mass.

[USA] [Commentary] Can I Find Love If I’m Transgendered?If you’re a woman in your mid-thirties, the dating scene is challenging enough. You’re conscious of feeling older, wrinkles become a reality, and you feel like your stock value as a potential wife has started to head south faster than the housing market. So in the past year, I decided it was high time I met a fabulous man.[CA, USA] Asexual contingent to march in San Fransisco pride paradeGay Pride parades are not the first place you'd expect to find asexuals marching. Some people who identify as ace fall under the GLBT umbrella while many others do not. Members of the queer movement have reached out to asexuals to include them in their community. The acronym for this has now become GLBTQA. (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and asexual.)[USA] [Blog/Commentary] And We Are Not Saved: The Opposition To ENDA From The Left Is MistakenThe more I read the position of those who oppose ENDA on the grounds that it does not fully protect us, the more I am reminded that my field of professorship is Law AND Society. Too many people see law as a savior. It is not. Law will not save us from discrimination. We cannot legislate against prejudice. Rather, law is nothing more than a tool of education, with the power of the state occasionally behind it.

[USA] Cher: ’I Respect the Courage’ in Chaz Transitioning to MaleAs previously reported at EDGE Chaz Bono, the child of Sonny Bono and Cher, has decided to move forward with a female-to-male transition.As the June 11 article noted, Bono’s publicist stated that, "Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity."